In Pixar's Cars, which Route 66 landmark inspires the Cozy Cone Motel?

In Pixar's Cars, the Cozy Cone Motel is inspired by the real Wigwam Motels.

The Cozy Cone uses cone-shaped cabins as a playful vehicle-world version of the Wigwam Motels, a group of distinctive roadside hotels associated with historic American highways. In the film, Sally Carrera runs the Radiator Springs motel, whose individual cone cabins give visitors a stylized reminder of mid-century roadside architecture.

The Wigwam concept was created by Frank Redford, and surviving locations are in Arizona and California. The design is often associated with Route 66 tourism, although the surviving motels are not all located on the same stretch of road. Pixar drew on real roadside landmarks throughout Cars to make Radiator Springs feel connected to the history of automobile travel.

The Cozy Cone is sometimes linked to other famous Route 66 stops, including the Blue Swallow Motel or Roy's Motel and Café. Those are separate real landmarks and are not the principal architectural inspiration named for the film's cone-shaped lodging.